


PROPERTY OF WCKD

by Snevving



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Freeform, Older Man/Younger Woman, The Scorch Trials - Freeform, WICKED | WCKD (World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department), WICKED | WCKD is Good, WICKED | WCKD is Not Good
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:36:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24613891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snevving/pseuds/Snevving
Summary: Who Will Keep The Lights On When The World Goes Dark
Relationships: Assistant Director Janson | Rat Man/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

"What do you remember about Wicked?"

The room was, for lack of a better description, grey. Grey walls, a grey floor, a grey ceiling, a grey sweater, hair and eyes. The table and chairs were stainless steel, the door was metal, a pressurised lock and a window that looked over a dark loading bay. Janson sat opposite, the table between. She looked at the black security camera, a small red light blinked on and off to signify it was on, watching her. 

"Elizabeth?" He said, pen clicking on the table as he set it down, leaning back in his chair. The girl didn't say much, just a small mumble.  
"Sorry, I'm sorry... what?"  
"What do you remember about Wicked?" He asked again. She looked at him, a small frown.  
"Wicked? They left us. We were lab-rats to be studied, tested."  
"Why?"  
"I don't know, there was a room filled with people, they were all dead, they'd been watching us. Something about a virus."  
"The Flare."  
"Yeah, how did you know?" She said, fiddling with her hands on the cold metal of her chair. He chuckled sadly.  
"It's no secret Elizabeth. Everyone's felt it, one way or another."  
"I can't remember what it means to me..." She said, looking down. "Where's home now?"  
"Here, for now, but you'll go somewhere, where Wicked will never hurt you again, the Flare will never take from you again. It will be a safe place."  
"It's a lot to promise."  
"It is..."  
"Thank you." She said, looking into his eyes to show how she meant it. He cleared his throat.  
"I still have more questions."  
"Yeah, go ahead." She said, Janson sighing.  
"Don't take this the wrong way, but I need to know, who's side are you on?"  
"What?" Elizabeth said frowning, unsure whether or not to be offended.  
"Who's side-"  
"I heard what you said, I just can't believe you said that to me..."  
"I didn't mean to upset you, I just need to know..."  
"No, no way, I'm not on their side." She said, adamant in tone. The question and the answer had changed the rooms atmosphere from sombre to tense. Janson said nothing, but noted something down in a pocket sized notebook.  
"One more question..."  
"Right." She said.  
"I read in your file... you used to work for them... do you have anything to say about that?"  
"No... whatever I did, whoever I was, it was a long time ago, it may as well be another world. I can't remember anything from before the maze. I wish I could." She said, shrugging. She rested, elbows on the table and head propped upon her hands. He smiled, a small tick on the corner of his lips. "Anything else?" She asked. He shook his head.  
"No, no... I think we're done." He said, standing up, thumping on the door twice, the lock hissing as it disengaged. A guard, a black man with a shaved head, tall and composed. "Henriks, take Miss Croft back to her bunkroom." He said, then turning his attention back to her. "Enjoy the rest of your evening Elizabeth... oh, and do come back to me, should you remember anything else. Goodnight..." He said. The door closed, the soldier, Henriks, walked her down the corridor.


	2. Chapter 2

The bunkroom door shut, the lock hissing as it set into place. It was the evening, supposedly half past eight, a time suggested by the metal clock which had been screwed into the wall. Lights out would be at nine. The doors would not open from now on until seven in the morning. Lynn hopped down from her bunk onto the cold concrete floor, cringing from the shock waves that jolted her ankles. "Hey, how was your interview with the Ratman?" She said, smile on her lips. Elizabeth scoffed.  
"Who?"  
"You know, Ratman? Fuck, what was his name, John? Jason? Am I getting hotter or colder?" She asked, all while Elizabeth winced. Lynn was incredibly intelligent, quick to solve puzzles and figure out a way around problems. It often amazed Elizabeth that someone so smart could be such a dumbass and it was painful to watch her fight with her brain at times, if not detrimental to her own IQ. 

"It's Janson, honey..." A voice piped up from a bed opposite. Jessa, curled up in the corner with a tattered comic, dog ears riddled the pages like mange. "Oh, thanks babe, well, I was close enough..." She shrugged, leaning on a pillar. "So, how was your interview with Janson?" She asked.  
"It was fine, just like you guys said it would be," she started, but then frowned, "hang on, you guys call him Ratman?"  
"Yeah, it's pretty funny..." Jessa said. Elizabeth gave Lynn a look.  
"What? Don't look at me, I heard another group calling him it, you know how nicknames stick about Swampass..." She said, hands up in mock surrender. Elizabeth gave her a much deserved evil eye at the use of her own nickname. "Yeah, don't I know it." She grumbled under her breath. "Anyway, there was nothing special about it, just a whole bunch of questions I couldn't remember the answers to."  
"Sounds about right... Swampass..."  
"You're such a dick, you're lucky there's guards doing night checks or I'd be strangling you right now."  
"Yeah, I'm like, shaking with fear right now..." She said, rolling her eyes and climbing back into her bed, getting under the covers. The conversation had ended for now. Elizabeth laid down in her own bed, feeling the soft airflow from the vent beneath, a hand lazing down the side, refreshed in the currents. Air conditioning. What a blessing, while she liked the heat on the outside, unless it was freezing over, weather which the Scorch had as much chance as Hell in getting, she wasn't really a fan of it indoors. Showers and baths were exceptions to be made of course, but other than that, she liked it cool. 

Five minutes of silence had passed, spent by staring at the empty bed above. She'd seen other groups, groups of five, six or even seven. There were eight beds in their room, only three of them. "Have any of you noticed how we've got the be one of the smallest groups here? Minus the groups that had people called out during dinner..."  
"I don't really like thinking about it, but yeah." Lynn said, leaning her head over her bunk to look in Elizabeth's direction. "Some people are luckier than others I guess."  
"Yeah... still, I wish Toni and Shai could've seen this, they'd be so happy."  
"They would... but like I said, I don't like thinking about it, it makes me sad."  
"Sorry, I was just trying to make conversation."  
"Yeah, but that's not something I wanna talk about... Jessa? Any good topic ideas?" She asked, looking down to her. Jessa put her comic down and scratched her head.  
"Uh, well the superhero in this comic can shoot webs and swing around town kicking butt... I was wondering, if it were possible, what powers I would have."  
"And?"  
"Well, I kinda like the idea about the power of invisibility, like imagine being able to just disappear whenever you want." She said, Lynn pulled a face. "That's stupid, if you turned invisible, the light would just go through you and it wouldn't hit you. You'd go blind." She said, rolling her eyes. "It's basic physics."  
"Lynn, we're talking about superpowers, it's not real..." Elizabeth said, looking at her dubiously.  
"Alright, so what superpowers would you have then?" She said. Elizabeth laughed.  
"Shapeshifting, hands down, you could go anywhere just by turning into the right person, or even thing. What about you Lynn? Throw logic out and just have some fun with it."  
"Well, if I had superpowers, it would be... all of them." She said simply, causing Jessa to let out an exasperated sigh.  
"Oh come on Lynn, be serious."  
"Serious? Well, okay, if I had to pick one, it would be the ability to manipulate time. Like, reverse it, go forwards, stop it, all that shit."  
"What's your reasoning?"  
"I could go back home, stop the flare, win the lottery, stuff like that. But then there's too many paradoxes involved with it. Like, if i went back in time and stopped the Flare, then I wouldn't have needed to go back in time to stop it which means I wouldn't go back to stop it... so then it would still exist."  
"Dude, what did I say about applying logic?"  
"Don't?"  
"Yeah, don't, but I get what you're saying about all that stuff, it's like going back in time to kill your granddad or something."  
"Yeah, I read about that paradox in a book Wicked sent up the box once..."  
"You were always reading those books..."  
"Well after I broke my leg, I wasn't much use running around the maze, so I started reading more."  
"All while you could've been helping the fielders." Jessa mumbled. Lynn heard it and whipped around to look at her.  
"But I did, by reading, instead of them just hoeing about like it was the fifteenth century, I learned how to make them that plough. I also learned that planting peas and stuff would help make the soil better for other things. Harvests were a lot better after that." She said.  
"Okay, saviour of the farm, you've made your point."  
"I like to think that I was meant to break my leg, sort of like fate or something."  
"Oh now look you've done Jessa, shes reminiscing."  
"It was like I was meant to be one of the fielders."  
"Please shut up." Elizabeth said. There was only so much about legumes she could take before snapping.

The lights shut off at nine, Lynn had finally stopped talking and Jessa was sitting on the toilet seat, using the razor light to keep reading. Elizabeth lay in bed, facing the wall, hands fidgeting with the vent. It was rattling in the AC, she kept pushing it down, hearing the rattle stop and then letting go and the sound starting again.

"Yo, Elizabeth? Whatever the fuck you're doing, please stop."  
"The grate's loose, it keeps shaking." She said, giving it another push.  
"Well either fix it, or take it off, just stop messing around with it." Lynn said, grumpy from trying and failing to fall asleep. Elizabeth got up, then knelt on the floor, peering under the bed. Moving some of her things out of the way, she found the grate. The screws were all the way in, so it wasn't loose like she had thought. Just irritating. "It's not loose, the screws are in properly."  
"Then take it off."  
"I'll try," Elizabeth said, crawling to the grate, "it's gonna be hard without a screwdriver though." She added, examining the screws. The screws had a bulbous head shaped like a mushroom, with a single line down the middle. "I might be able to get these off with a penny or something."  
"We don't have pennies, why would we, have you ever seen a penny in the maze?"  
"No, but something flat and thin would work. Any ideas?" She asked, a little bitterly and not really expecting an answer, let alone from Jessa, who knew next to nothing about DIY and building. "A buckle." She said.  
"A Buckle?"  
"Yeah, the little bit that goes through the loop, its flat and it's thin. You've got them on your boots... I saw it in one of my comics, it should work in real life too."  
"It's a comic, Jessa, they're not real." She said. Lynn sat up, frowning.  
"Hold on, that might work actually, just try it." She said. Elizabeth sighed, grabbing one of her boots and crawling back under the bed. Jessa was right, the prong fit the slot and after figuring which way to turn, the screws loosened up. The grate was off in five minutes, Elizabeth looking down the duct. "Woah..."  
"What?"  
"These vents are massive."  
"What?"  
"Seriously, come look."  
"I'm not getting of my bed again, Jessa, go see what she's talking about." Lynn said, Jessa rising with annoyance at being pulled from the story. She went on her hands and knees, crawling over to where the vent was situated. She looked down the duct. "She's right, it is massive."  
"Okay, but why are we so concerned with the size?"  
"Because, we can easily fit in them."  
"And why would we want to do that? Do you know how dangerous that can be?"  
"Who cares? We can explore all the places we're not allowed to, even better, we can break into the kitchens, I hear they're holding out on us..."  
"Hidden tootsie rolls don't mean shit when you're sliced up and bleeding out in an air duct. Those things are made out of sheet metal, you'll get shredded."  
"Alright, we'll just have to be careful then."  
"Are you for real?" Elizabeth said, looking at Jessa, who's eyes were lit up at the prospect of secret snacking. It seemed that threat of injury or death wouldn't deter her from food. "Yeah, they're massive, it will be easy to move around... plus, if they didn't want people crawling around in their air ducts, they shouldn't have made people sized air ducts."  
"That's exactly the kind of thinking that will get you into trouble. I'm not going."  
"Yeah Jessa, it's not exactly the best idea, I like my skin on my body."  
"Even if we were to go, not now, I'm tired, too tired for adventuring. You can go if you want, but I'm staying in bed."  
"Tomorrow. I don't care, but you two are coming with me. Tomorrow." Jessa said, crawling back into bed. Elizabeth decided to do the same.


	3. Chapter 3

SUBJECT D4: ELIZABETH CROFT

AGE: 19

GENDER: FEMALE

HAIR: LIGHT AUBURN 

EYES: HAZEL

ETHNICITY: CAUCASIAN - FAINT ROMANY DECENT

FROM: WESTERN EUROPE - ENGLAND - LONDON

TYPE: IMMUNE

NOTES:

Subject D4 shows much promise. A high performer in the maze trials, displaying desirable attributes such as; courage, kindness, agility, discipline and intelligence. I have high hopes for D4's performances in phase two.

My session with D4 has allowed me to understand them on a personal level. They are not who I once knew. They are cautious, quiet, choosing their words carefully. It's no surprise, I am a stranger to them, their trust not earned quite yet. Perhaps with time they will begin to reveal more.

Subject D4 has stated they have no intention of working with us again, an unfortunate yet foreseen circumstance. Their original work with us was fundamental in understanding how the brains of immune's work. For now, I have assigned them over to the non-harvest list, I do hope they don't make me regret this decision. 

The Swipe is still active, they have no memory of their life before, nor the work they've done with us. For the time being, the Swipe shall remain in the active state, they are not quite ready yet.

J.Lawlor


	4. Chapter 4

"Connor. Evelyn. Justin. Peter. Allison..." A slight pause. "Squiggy." A few of the groups started to laugh, but Janson spoke out over the chuckles. "Alright, settle down..." He said, waiting for silence, which was quickly delivered. He continued. "Franklin... and Abigail..."

Elizabeth looked up as the people who were called stood up, gathering with two of the guards. Janson's voice faded out as the interest in food was now higher than whatever else he had to say. He had done the listings, that was the only important part of it all. The group left along with Janson and the other men, and more people began to turn their attention to idle conversation. She toyed with her food, a boring stew with gristly lumps floating in a brown gravy. It hardly looked appetising, even after living in the maze for a good two years of her life. She watched Jessa and Lynn, standing in line with the serving trays, waiting for their own slop, talking to the two boys in front. Elizabeth had been left alone, for the time being, and the isolation offered little distraction, thus she observed the others uninterrupted. Other groups, from other mazes, it was such a strange thought, of course, it made sense that WCKD would run more than one experiment, each one with different variables, but the maze had been her entire world. It had been hard to imagine anything beyond the walls. However, the hall filled with kids before her, it was not imagination. She stared at the plants in the metal cages, blue lighting behind them, then back to the hall. A lone figure caught her eye. There was a boy, sitting at a table in the corner, alone. He looked up and met her gaze, an awkward smile and a shrug. He looked away, pulling his hoodie up. Elizabeth frowned, a hall full of people, and this kid sat alone. Elizabeth stood up, taking her tray.

"So what's your deal then?" She said, dropping her tray down with a thud. The boy jolted at the sound, looking up at her, eye brows raised, drawn together, mouth parted. Fear, surprise. Understandable.  
"Wha-what?"  
"Your deal. What's the story?"  
"The story?"  
"You're trying not the be noticed by anyone... you've got your head down, you've put your hood up..."  
"Yeah, now please go back to your group, I'm trying to-"  
"Keep a low profile? Lemme tell you bro, you're not doing a very good job..."  
"I haven't had anyone talk to me until now..."  
"Yeah, not because you blend in though, it's because you look like a weirdo... believe me, a hall full of kids, all in groups, you stick out like a sore thumb mate."  
"What do you mean?"  
"People talk, I know you've been here a week almost, all your friends are gone and your name's going to get called out any day now... why are you trying to hide?"  
"I can't tell you everything, not here..."  
"That's okay... word of advice though?"  
"What?" He said.  
"Try to make some new friends, blend in and try to look normal..."  
"Thanks, can I give you some as well?"  
"Yeah." Elizabeth shrugged. The boys eyebrows drew together in concern.  
"Don't trust the Ratman... now go back to your table before your friends get back, we never spoke."


	5. Chapter 5

SUBJECT B1: ARIS JONES

AGE: 16

GENDER: MALE

HAIR: BROWN

EYES: BLUE

ETHNICITY: CAUCASIAN 

FROM: NORTH AMERICA - MASSACHUSETTS - PEABODY

TYPE: IMMUNE

NOTES:

Subject B1. Quiet, solitary, a close bond with B2. They have always been a quick one, good at connecting the dots and putting things together, subject B1 will read between the lines.Before the Swipe, B1 followed orders and understood what had to be done for the greater good. B1 displays the pleasing characteristics of intelligence, discipline, determination and courage. They performed well in the maze trails and has the potential for doing exceptionally well in phase two.

B1 has displayed a lack in desire to work with us again, unsurprisingly. Perhaps when the Swipe is disengaged they will begin to see the bigger picture once more. I am adding B1 to the non-harvest list.

J.Lawlor


End file.
